An interesting read regarding the "Will to Survive"...thoughts?

The Will to survive

Your life depends on it

As law enforcement personnel, you attend your training academy usually prior to performing the job. In that academy, and often by the very nature of your personalities, you are taught the concept of the will to survive. This concept carries different connotations for different individuals, but the overlying concept is to do what you need to do to go home healthy at the end of your shift. In addition, you assume the alpha dog role within society, commanding compliance when you are justified to do so. You don’t back down from confrontation. You typically don’t retreat or shy away from confrontation or danger. However, are you able to shift gears as you go off duty or when not confronted by danger? Can you effectively deal with the daily stress of the job?

Will to survive

What does the phrase, “Will to survive” mean? We hear this phrase over and over throughout our training and careers. Again, for each of us, this phrase carries a unique meaning, but it is something bread into law enforcement. According to psychologydictionary.com, the will to survive is the “Determination to live regardless of an adverse scenario or extreme situations. Commonly referred to as the will to live.” What does that mean for our day to day operations?

As public safety, you need to shift your paradigm of what the will to survive means. The phrase was coined with the purpose of reminding you to never give up the fight until you win. While this context is absolutely necessary and accurate, there are other influences which fall under the concept of will to survive.

As law enforcement, you often deal with the worst situations society has to offer. You see death, sorrow, abuse, fear, victimization, disease, orphans, widows, and many other negative situations. You are the victims of assaults, lies, deceit, political assassination, vehicle collisions, stress injuries, physical injuries, disease, and murder. You have additional influences including inner-organizational politics, slander by the media, negative public opinion, and family stresses. Amongst all these pressures, you manage to go to work and perform your duties, often at a super-human level.

To simplify this complex issue, let’s break these influences down into three categories: Physical survival, career survival, and emotional survival.

PHYSICAL:

The physical will to survive is the most obvious to us all. You eagerly step into your roles as law enforcement officials with the intention of retiring from a successful 30+ year career. You walk into your duties with the personal drive to never give up until you win the fight. Surrendering is a reality you have refused to submit to. That personal compulsion to survive any adverse situation drives us and protects us.

There are aspects of the physical will to survive that we often do not take into account. First, we often tend to “work hard and play hard.” It is no secret law enforcement has a tendency to consume tobacco and alcohol, sometimes in large quantities. I don’t address this issue to pass judgment. Consider the long term health effects of smoking cigarettes combined with the stresses of your job. Is the benefit tobacco gives you worth the cost in the long term? According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 440,000 Americans die from tobacco use each year. Smoking accounts for 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men, 80% in women. Your risk of stroke or coronary disease is multiplied by up to 4 times. At least 11 types of cancer are attributed to smoking. Statistics are not all-telling, but just weigh your risks against your benefits.

Abusing alcohol is a nefarious term which is overused and under defined. There are categories of abuse including binge drinking (5 or more drinks in one session) and heavy drinking (more than 2 drinks each day). While most binge drinkers are not necessarily alcohol dependent, there are associated behaviors which present significant long lasting risks. Among these are unintentional judgment related injuries (traffic collisions, falls, drowning, violence, risky sexual behaviors, etc…). Alcohol suppresses your decision making abilities, occasionally resulting in negative results. Additionally, binge drinking can cause alcohol poisoning, which can result in organ damage, coma, or death.

Long term heavy drinking can bring about cardiovascular disease, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, depression, anxiety, cancer, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and pancreatitis. Alcohol dependence will have a long lasting adverse effect on your personal life and career.

As you combine all the negative stress conditions, political conditions, angst, shiftwork, lack of adequate sleep and tobacco or alcohol (or both), you begin to see alcohol as your stress relief. In reality, it can intensify the stress by the depressive nature of alcohol and the adverse health impact.

Again, this is not discussed in judgment of your behaviors, this is intended to be information to enhance your will to survive.

Positive factors which can counter the non-chemical negatives you encounter in your job include exercise, family time, faith based activities, and maintaining a positive attitude. If you were offered a guaranteed 1 to 7 return on an investment, would you consider it? You invest $1.00 and get $7.00 in return, guaranteed. A recent research paper, published by PLOS medicine, has indicated a 1 to 7 return on your time spent in exercise. Each minute you invest in exercise repays you with 7 additional minutes at the end of your life.

Faith plays an integral role in stress management, focusing on positive attitude, and overall health. Statistically those who practice their faith live longer, suffer from less stress related disease, and commit suicide less frequently.

Redefined, our will to survive should include all aspects of our lives which mitigate the potentially deadly effects of law enforcement work. This removes those factors from our plates so we can more effectively deal with the acute stress factors resulting from situations such as a critical incident.

The physical will to survive should include the “Determination to live, with a desirable quality of life, regardless of an adverse scenario or extreme situations.”

CAREER SURVIVAL:

Career survival is a highly neglected topic within the law enforcement profession. Years ago, law enforcement culture was far more militaristic in structure and less public relations oriented. Those peace officers who have been on the job even for over 15 years have experienced a profound transformation. The public has different expectations, the department has different rules, the newly hired employees are more “professional”, use of force has been restricted, and job expectations have migrated. Put in simple terms, law enforcement are playing defense. Criminals are playing offense. The public opinion is now the referee. Offense has changed up its game and the referee has changed the rulebook. The defense has resisted changing its game because they got really good at the old ways. The defense gets penalties for violating the new rules and the referees are getting angry.

Law enforcement personnel, particularly the veteran officers, have to change their game to match the rulebook. This is the simple explanation of this transformation we are seeing in today’s police environment. Our resistance to change is adversely affecting our career survival.

On an individual level, it is irrelevant whether we approve or disapprove of the changes we are experiencing. Take a step back from your position and evaluate what the mission of your specific assignment is. For instance, you could be assigned to patrol. Your primary general mission is to protect lives and safeguard property. If you resent being required to wear a body mounted camera and fail to turn it on in protest, you will face discipline. Are you meeting your mission by violating policy and being disciplined? Would it be more effective to use the camera to your advantage in the prosecution of your cases? You may resent it, but the referee requires it now. Don’t get a flag on the play because of stubbornness.

In this age, law enforcement document incidents, such as use of force, more thoroughly than ever in the history of the profession. In a vast majority of the cases, you use force appropriately in a legal manner, conforming to your respective department policy. However, how well do you document your actions? Do your reports concisely depict the facts leading into the use of force (Graham factors)? Do you answer every legal and policy related question you can in your report, before the questions are asked? If you don’t, you can’t get angry because you already know that is what they expect from you now.

In many cases, attitude plays a major role in your career path. Are you able to maintain a positive attitude around your co-workers, even if you are frustrated or angry with the department? Do you encourage those around you? Do you, “Raise the bar” in terms of your quality of work? Are you that poison employee who ruins the newly hired employees around you? Do you encourage others to violate policy because you believe it is not a legitimate policy?

Like it or not, change is here. It is not going to go away. Accept the change, comply with it, and use it towards your mission. This will remove more stress from your work life than you will realize. This will uplift your career and your profession.

Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Don’t stand near the, “Slippery slope” because you may fall. If you are above reproach in all you do, your career will survive when the storm hits. After the storm subsides, keep positive and move forward. This will always serve as a positive example to others as well as promote your career survival.

Career survival should redefine the will to survive to include, “Determination to live and prevail over adversity and change, with a desirable quality of life, regardless of an adverse scenario or extreme situations.”

EMOTIONAL SURVIVAL:

The very foundation of our will to survive is derived from the depths of our soul. Every environmental factor throughout our lives combines with our created makeup to form our character. Merriam-Webster defines character as the complex of mental and ethical traits marking and often individualizing a person. As you are exposed to negative stimulus, you are affected in some way. As you are exposed to trauma, you are affected. The effects of stress and trauma are cumulative. By nature we ignore the signs and symptoms of stress reactions.

Have you ever been involved in an incident which you hoped would have had a different outcome? Have you been in an incident involving trauma or death? Have you responded to a deceased child or a traumatic vehicle collision? Have you watched your friend or co-worker die? Have you had images of these incidents which you can’t get out of your thoughts? Have your work experiences ever adversely affected your home life? Do you self-medicate with drugs or alcohol?

If you are at a point these factors are disrupting your life, you have danger signs of adverse stress reactions. Everyone has their own threshold in terms of stress limits or trauma limits. Each individual deals with it in their own personal way. If your way to deal with it is alcohol or self-destructive behavior, you are in danger of becoming a victim of stress related dependency. If this is the case, it is time to seek professional help to win the fight because of your will to survive.

BOTTOM LINE:

Your will to survive is systemic involving all of three factors. Each factor is interdependent of the other. Think of the will to survive as a three legged stool. If one leg fails, the stool fails. In your lives, you are a spouse, parent, warrior, and counselor, bringer of comfort, a verbal punching bag, a political pawn, a victim, a scape goat, hero, villain, and a public servant. The pressure on you, as a peace officer, is higher than ever. Your long term survival in each of these categories is the key to successfully navigating a long successful career.

Your will to survive is all inclusive. Win the fight against your opponent, your weaknesses, your vulnerabilities, department politics, legal process, societal politics, health concerns, physical injury, emotional trauma, and all temptations.

Will to survive: “The unwavering determination to survive and prevail over all adversity and change, with a desirable quality of life, regardless of, adverse scenario or extreme situations.”